Page 100 of Rupture

He risked a glance up. The swarm wavered. The spearhead aimed at Rose had lost its sharp edge, fracturing.

This.

Three years in prison. Fighting back from the edge to build something worth living for. And for what? To die in a cave?

So be it.

He’d spent too long trapped in the past, blind to what was right in front of him. But Rose had changed that.

If this brief, sweet glimpse of her was all he’d ever have, he’d take it. Because if Thea’s swarm wasn’t stopped, there wouldn’t be a world left for Rose to live in.

Rose’s screams faded behind him.

The swarm turned.

Tracking him.

His focus narrowed to a pinpoint. Keep her safe.

One last time.

56

Rose didn’t havetime to scream as Luca jerked her from the cave entrance and threw her to the ground. His arms locked around her in a vise-like grip as he rolled, positioning his body between her and the cave.

For an instant, the air glimmered like glass about to shatter. Then came a wall of heat, flattening them to the ground. Pain exploded in her ears in a tyrannical shock wave as sand scoured her bare arms. Heat seared her nostrils, scorched her lips. Luca’s hand curved protectively around her head, locking her in place.

Her lungs screamed for air that wasn’t there, the explosion having stolen it all, her chest muscles frozen in shock. And just when darkness threatened the edges of her vision, air rushed back. Her lungs dragged in scalding breaths saturated with the stink of burning fuel. Luca’s grip eased, and she twisted free, pushing up onto her hands and knees, her palms scalded by the super-heated ground. Her hands were grazed as she staggered to her feet and swayed.

The entrance to the cave was gone, plugged with rock.

Finn.

She lurched forward on unsteady legs, her shocked brain struggling to coordinate movement.

An arm caught hers. “Rose.”

She spun against Luca’s restraint, wrenching free. Her vision was hazy with tears as she pointed at the collapsed entrance. “He’s in there. We have to get him out.” She stumbled to the settling rubble where thick gray dust rose in choking clouds. Falling to her knees, she clawed at the rocks, ignoring the sharp edges that bit into her hands and tore at her nails.

Nothing mattered except finding him.

He’d done it. He’d really done it. She pressed her hands against the rock and lowered her head, her body wracked with sobs she could no longer contain.

The look in his eyes when he’d floored the jeep.God.

Luca climbed past her. “Ethan, can you hear me. This is Luca. We have a situation. Finn was caught in the detonation.”

He scrambled to the top of the rubble pile and began digging with his bare hands, shoving stones aside, sending cascades of pebbles running down like deadly rain.

“There’s space here.” He hurled rocks over his shoulder as if they weighed nothing, his movements desperate.

“Rose!” Luca’s voice cracked with urgency. “I have something.”

His head disappeared into a gap in the rocks.

Rose eased back on her heels, reality crushing in. It was all wrong. No one could survive this. No one. She buried her face in her hands, the grit abrading her skin.

“Here. Here!” Luca slid onto his belly, wriggling his body through the gap. With a slither of loose debris, his legs vanished, then his boots, swallowed by the mountain of stone.

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